Ever wonder how to cut fresh basil into those pretty little strips? No? Hmmmm. Ok, even if you’ve never had it on your bucket list, now’s the time to try it out. The fancy term is chiffonade, pronounced shif-oh-nod or shif-oh-nade (like lemonade). I just call it: cutting the basil into long thin strands.

Basil can bruise quite easily and is a pain to chop up leaf by leaf. Chiffonading is hands down the funnest way to cut basil for any dish that requires chopped fresh basil (another great way is to tear it into pieces which eliminates bruising all together but that’s annoying if you need large amounts or when you want the picturesque strands of basil).

This quick little video shows you a simple, fast way to channel your inner chef and chiffonade that basil like you’ve been doing it your whole life.

Oh, I’m so excited to know this! I love fresh herbs, so I planted a little herb garden this year. But I really have no idea about how to prep them straight from the plant, so this is very helpful. Thank you!

Mel- I clicked to view this video tutorial even though I know how to chiffonade basil. Your video tutorials are so fun to watch (and you are adorable!), and I love seeing your beautiful kitchen! You rock, Mel!

Mel, I love your first paragraph. I am cracking up over here! My first post on my blog when I launched this month was homemade marinara sauce. My Mom told me to tell people they could make a chiffonade…I decided to just tell them to toss in a couple of basil leaves. 🙂 Excellent video, by the way.

I love seeing you in these video clips.. it’s fun!!! I have to say.. I have those same knives and LOVE them… and I also have been using this same method to cut up spinach leaves… I cut them up like this and put them in salads, sandwiches, soups, sauces… really whatever … and my kids don’t even know.. Love you, you are so genuine… Your blog saves me DAILY!!! I’ve been trying pretty much everything off your 30 min meals… all huge hits.. This week we had Bourbon Chicken, shrimp scampi, and sweet mustard baked chicken…no hassle meals… no leftovers… everybody’s happy you and your blog came into our lives 🙂 <3

Now will you do one on how to chop cilantro? I don’t know why I struggle so much with it, but I do. Washing it, storing it, chopping it……ugh. Do I chop the whole bunch, stems included or rip off a few leaves, which makes it harder to hold….? Can you tell it causes me great stress 🙂

Hi Debbie – I do grow basil. I had bad luck planting it in my garden last year – I think it got burned up too easily with the full sun. This year I planted it in pots on my back porch and it is growing like crazy! It’s part sun/part shade and I don’t do much besides water when the soil feels too dry. You might find other good tips by googling – good luck!